Fraser Island

Michael spent the first three days of his precious Christmas leave installing a new windlass (anchor winch) - shiny! - to allow us to escape for a few days. Remember the problems we had with the old one in Tassie, and every anchorage since? Yes, that's how long Michael has been swearing at it and threatening to violently throw it overboard.  Meanwhile I got Bass Voyager packed up, provisioned and ready to sail.

The feeling of throwing off the docklines again was awesome. We spent our first night at Moon Point and once the wind filled in we had a fantastic, fast sail up Platypus Bay at the northern end of Fraser Island. It is a sweeping, 30 mile stretch of white sand and crystal clear water fringed by sandhills and wooded bushland. We dropped anchor (sans swearing) at Lagoon Anchorage, about two thirds of the way up the bay. I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but straight up - its freakin paradise.... the nicest anchorage we've found on Fraser Island so far.  We swam, explored the adjoining lagoon, Michael fished (caught a baby shark which we went all gaga over before releasing), we cooked, drank apple cider and watched the summer thunderstorms pass us by. So cool.

Counting down until we can do this full-time again...

Merry Christmas!

6 weeks in Hervey Bay

We've been in Hervey Bay for just over 6 weeks now and we've managed to squeeze in a fair bit over that time... mainly we've been getting to know the area and settling back into a more land-reliant existence.

Its quite an adjustment after a year underway, especially for Michael who is now back in the 9 to 5 (actually 8 to 5) grind. Ive been working too - Ive picked up two new contracts, one local and one national, and Ive also been doing a small business course.

After 7 days in HB we decided that "one week on, one week off" was more our style and so we went to Fraser Island with Michael's parents for a week! OK, so the trip had actually been planned well in advance... Fraser Island and spending time with Margaret and John was awesome, sittin by the pool, cooking delicious meals, 4WDing ... even getting stuck in the middle of the island for 6 hours when our car broke down!

Oh! And last weekend we flew over to the spectacular Lady Elliot Island to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary.

So yeah, the adventure hasn't really ended, has it?

The latest development is that we're moving into an apartment for a few months over the hottest part of the summer. Much as we love life aboard its hard for me to work effectively during the heat of the day and unfortunately the boat harbour here is also quite surgey at certain points of the tide, making things pretty uncomfortable for a few hours, twice a day. The apartment we've chosen is one block back from the marina and part of a resort, which means just one thing: POOL! And a perfect place for friends and family to come and stay - HINT HINT!

Well I could write many more words about everything we've seen and done in the last 6 weeks, but well... pictures/1000 words....you know...

View along the Urangan foreshore

The historic - and very long - Urangan Pier

Friendly local

Michael and his Dad John sailed Bass Voyager over to Fraser Island. Anchored off the Kingfisher Resort.

Beautiful Lake MacKenzie on Fraser Island

Our 4WDing adventure was going great until the transmission dumped all its fluid in the space of  about 10 metres. In a mobile phone black spot.

A passing car felt sorry for us and gave us beer! What a champ.

We managed to get a couple of text messages out to Michael's boss who was able to get in touch with the island's only tow truck and taxi driver. We all kept our sense of humour and actually had quite a fun time hanging out in the bush ... until it started to get dark... We were just resigning ourselves to spending the night in the car when finally, after 6 hours of waiting (despite us giving our GPS coordinates!) the taxi driver found us and took us back to resort. The car got towed back (at great expense!) the next day and Michael was able to fix it without too much trouble.

Margaret on the deck of our lovely villa at the Kingfisher Resort.

So last Friday was our 10 year wedding anniversary. Nothing could top the incredible year we've spent together, but we decided to give it a try! Michael got to sit in the cockpit for our flight to Lady Elliot Island. The flight was THRILLING, not scary at all, and such an amazing way to start the trip!

View of Urangan Boat Harbour. Spot Bass Voyager?

View to Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Strait

Lady Elliot Island - a little spec in the ocean, 80kms off the coast. Paradise.

Coming in to land over the fringing reef

Lady Elliot is an eco resort and we were privileged enough to be there during bird nesting season. There were literally thousands of  noisy, randy and completely entertaining noddys and terns nesting all over the island. 

  

The snorkelling and diving was spectacular. The turtles were so friendly - bossy even! One of them followed us for about 10 minutes and practically demanded that we scratch his shell. We've never had such an interactive encounter with one of these usually shy creatures before...

November 23 2002

23 November 2012

Hervey Bay

Well, we arrived in Hervey Bay four days ago after a difficult trip up from Moreton Bay - a lot of close-hauled sailing followed by bashing into headwinds under engine. Damn northerlies!! This is why we hate keeping to a schedule, but we had to get here in time for Michael to start his job, which he did on Friday.

We sailed overnight up to the Wide Bar Bar - the notorious southern entrance to the Great Sandy Straits. The local volunteer marine rescue gave us GPS coordinates to help us safety cross the bar. The approach is really long and unpredictable and has the discouraging local name of "The Mad Mile". Well, we're always up for a challenge! We crossed without incident, but considering the messy surf to our left and scary shallow water to our right it was easy to see how nasty it would be in bad weather. Exhausted, we dropped the pick just inside the entrance in the calm waters of Pelican Bay.

We spent the next few days winding our way up the shallow gutters of the Straits, timing our trip with the tides, fishing along the way and catching undersized mudcrabs. Its sooo beautiful here, and a pretty damn good consolation to the fact that we are going to be staying in one place for a while. The western coast of Fraser Island is densely wooded in parts with mangrove-lined creeks and high sandy cliffs. The beaches are clean and white and gorgeous. The water is WARM and turquoise blue. What a backyard!

On our last night out the weather was atrocious, strong northerlies of course. There was no way we could make it over to Hervey Bay against wind and current before dark so we dropped our anchor out the front of the Kingfisher Bay resort on Fraser Island. This is where we will be taking Michael's parents in few weeks, so it was a good excuse to get off the boat and check out the facilities. They are very welcoming to boaties, and even have showers, a pool and a bar/restaurant that you can visit for free! Well, the food and drinks aren't free, but you can use the pool and showers for nothing. We drank cocktails by the pool before splurging and checking in to a hotel room for the night. Kitty took one for the team and kept watch on the boat, enduring the rough conditions.

The next morning the winds had dropped and we walked down to the jetty to take our dingy back to Bass Voyager and head over to Hervey Bay. What a shock to see that poor old Guppy (our dingy) had gotten caught under the jetty in the bad conditions and torn one of her inflatable pontoons. She was filled to the brim with water, the oars and petrol tank were floating, and the outboard was precariously close to going underwater. We dragged her up onto the dock to drain her and then the two of us balanced tentatively on the remaining inflated pontoon and very carefully motored back to BV. That, coupled with our broken anchor winch (which Michael fixed three times back in Tassie), the tired engine, and the loooooong list of other maintenance jobs, suggests that its clearly time to stop for a while! 11 months at sea has taken its toll on poor BV, but she has taken such good care of us and she deserves some TLC in return. That's my big goal for the next couple of months, while Michael brings home the bacon.

So here we are at the Great Sandy Straits Marina. Hervey Bay seems to have everything you could possibly need, and the town of Maryborough is only a 30 min drive away.  We drove there on Thursday to check out its weekly farmers market and see what the local chandlerys are like. Maryborough is very quaint with lots of historic buildings, and is the birthplace of the author of Mary Poppins. Hervey Bay itself has a beautiful esplanade which stretches for 15kms (maybe more?). Bundaberg is an hour or so north, and Brissy is only 3 hours south. A great location really! BHB (Beautiful Hervey Bay - thanks Aunty Genevieve!) overlooks Fraser Island and at this time of year it is buzzing with tourists coming to see the humpback whales who give birth in the safe waters inside the island. Although known as Hervey Bay its really a chain of smaller villages called Urangan (where we are), Torquay, Scarness and Pialba which have melted together over the years. A great place for a seaside holiday - hint, hint family and friends!!

Now the reason that Ive taken a while to update the blog is that we had a bit of a shock on our second day here. Kitty went missing. We searched everywhere for her, checked all the other boats on our arm of the marina, called the council and all the vets, spoke to all our neighbours ... there was no sign of her. Our worst fear was that she had fallen in the water, and this was kindly exacerbated by a neighbour mentioning that fisherman had seen a bull shark in the harbour recently! We really feared the worst, and I was an emotional wreck. Its ridiculous how much I love that cat! It seemed so unfair - she'd come so far, including two Bass Strait crossings, only to disappear now!! By last night we were almost 100% convinced we'd never see her again, when at about 9pm Michael heard a little "gooong" sound (her weird little broken miaow) on the dock - sure enough it was Kitty, very hungry, but otherwise not a hair out of place. She got a very stern talking to as well as lots of cuddles. And she's been grounded. No more dockside excursions! Oh, and she's going to get a collar, bell and nametag, much to her disgust!

So that's about it for now. Oh, except Michael started work on Friday and it went really well - we went out to dinner with his new boss Lawrie who is a top bloke and has helped us out with a cheap car - a Jeep that I have christened "The Green Machine". A 4WD will be great for exploring the area, lugging the dingy down to the Mary River to go fishing, and checking out Fraser Island.

Here are a couple of pics. You know its been a hard week when there are only a few to choose from! LOL, some people have real problems, eh?? ;o)

Anchored behind the Tangalooma wrecks in Moreton Bay

Michael caught this gorgeous little baby shark in the Great Sandy Strait. My only regret is I didn't touch him before Michael released him! Sandpapery, apparently.

Windless morning in the GSS

Hangin' by the "day-visitors" pool at the Kingfisher Bay Resort

Beached Az! - Passage to Moreton Bay

Sometimes in the sailing life, despite best laid plans and all due diligence, things just don't go as planned.

At dawn this morning we left a lovely anchorage at Jumpin Pin just north of the Gold Coast at South Stradbroke Island. The eastern channel from the Broadwater to Moreton bay has a couple of very shallow patches, but we'd been told it is much prettier than the main channel and from the look of the charts we would have enough water for our 2 metre keel. We timed our departure with the rising tide as we knew at least if you run aground the water will rise a bit more and pop you right off again!

Long story short, we ran aground. Oh, the shame. At least this time Michael was at the helm, not me! There is nothing worse than feeling the boat lurch to a stop with a "chhhhhhhhhhhhhh" sound as the keel digs into the sand. Annoyingly we were following the charts and were right in the middle of a marked channel. Our big mistake was getting to the shallow patch a little too early in the tide.

We tried reversing and motoring forward but BV was stuck tight and leaning over at a 15 degree angle. Michael sounded around the boat with our portable sonar to find a safe path out, and then we ran the anchor out using the dinghy and with a combination of the anchor winch, engine power and the rising tide we got free.

We were surprisingly calm through the whole experience and worked together well to get us out of the situation. The weird thing was, three other boats came pass while we were stuck and not one of them checked to see if we were OK. Who would do that?

The rest of the passage was fine. Michael scoped our course ahead using our handheld sonar and I followed a few hundred metres behind. The feeling of entering the deeper water of Moreton Bay was a huge relief and we cracked up laughing about the crazy experience.

One thing's for sure, the life we've chosen is never boring!

Anyone with a similar draft should consider taking the main channel, or moving with a big high tide over the shallow parts of Tipplers/Canipa Passage.

We're now anchored at North Stradbroke Island and planning our next move.

Slipping Sands anchorage, about 30 seconds before we ran aground. No, we weren't distracted and taking photos!!! Well, Michael wasn't....

A grey and rainy day in Canipa passage.

The last guy that ran aground.

Anchorage on North Stradbroke Island. This is a great spot. Hard to believe that Brisbane is just over there!

Baby mangrove

Beachcombing

With all of the excitement of the last week we have neglected to tell you about meeting up with our friends Kim and Kim from Captain Silver who we met in Tassie earlier this year, first in Stanley on the North West Coast of Tasmania where we weathered 55 knots together on the Stanley Dock. They headed south down the west coast, as we headed east along the north coast. The second time we crossed paths was two months later as we were speeding from Launceston to Hobart to meet Caitlin's flight back to Adelaide for Imogen's engagement party, and the Kims were heading north, back to their home in the Gold Coast hinterland.

We had such a great day with you guys - thank you so much! There is nothing better than exploring a place with locals who know all the best spots. We cant wait to see you again.

Picnic lunch near Mt Tambourine (is that right Kim?)

Exchanging cruising stories and comparing war wounds

View from the St Bernard Hotel, with its beautiful garden

News - Hervey Bay ahoy!

Four days ago I emailed Michael a job advertisement - as I sometimes do - fully expecting him to say - as he usually does - "nah, its not for me." Instead he said "hey, I could do this!" and sent in his CV. Three hours later Michael received a call from the boss saying "you are perfect for the role, lets meet". Yesterday we hired a car and drove the four hours north to the town of Hervey Bay on the Great Sandy Strait, and overlooking Fraser Island to scope out the place and have an interview.

Long story short, Michael got the job. Its perfect for us. Although we had planned to cruise for a couple of months more before stopping, the job is in the exact area we were looking at to settle in and get some much needed boat work done. The pay is good, the location is gorgeous, and the potential for weekend and holiday sailing around the area is really attractive - the Great Sandy Strait for starters, and the southern islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Plus its only 3 hours from Brisbane!

We've sorted a marina berth at the Great Sandy Strait Marina in the Urangan Boat Harbour and will spend the next two weeks sailing up the coast.

A great bonus is that Michael's new boss Lawrie is totally happy for us to meet Michael's parents in late October and take them over to Fraser Island as planned - its all fallen beautifully in to place.

The Gold Coast

Visiting the Gold Coast by water is totally different to doing it by land. Oh sure, there are the kazillion-story highrises, pumped-up leather-skinned men in fluoro green budgie smugglers and dickheads on jetskis... but we've been lucky to see a different side to the Goldie to our previous visit about 8 years back (Isabella - do you remember???)

After a day or two in Bums Bay (which was surprisingly relaxing, with its contrasting backdrop of the Gold Coast skyscrapers and coastal scrub) my sister Imogen and her fiance Michael (yes, confusing - we call them Michael One and Michael Two) flew in for a friend's wedding. They put us up in their hotel for a night down at Nobbys Beach which was great because it was off the main drag at Surfers Paradise and had great views down the coast to Burleigh Heads. It also meant we could catch up on all our laundry - joy! After drinking A LOT and being denied entry to the hotel pool by a creepy caretaker around 9pm we scrambled down on to the beach and stumbled around like Schoolies, before coming to our senses and marvelling at the warm water, bright stars and dramatic GC skyline.

Two days later (after recovering from our crashing hangovers) we met up with Imogen and Michael Two again and drove 30 minutes south to the coastal town of Currumbin to check out the Swell Sculpture Festival - a beachside display of works from over 50 artists. It was a perfect QLD day: bright, bright blue skies, sunshine hot enough to burn if you let it, the coastline misty from the surf-spray - aahh! Its so good to be here.

To top off their visit, on Thursday we broke with Bass Voyager tradition, dressed up and went to a restaurant called Glass at the Southport marina (think Sheraton and Versace hotels - yikes!) and met Imogen and Michael's friends Tracy and Josh who were just married a few days earlier. We had a lovely night. Great company, amazing food and wine. Thanks Imo and Mike - we loved seeing you!

Two days ago we decided to up-anchor from Bums Bay and head a little further up the Broadwater for a change of scene. We're now anchored off the beach at Paradise Point, trying to have a sense of humour about the jetskis, power boats and waterskiers flying by dangerously close to us! On the up-side, the township here is really nice - cafes and shops along wide beachfront parklands.

Yesterday was a great day. A new friend of ours, Ron from the yacht Stormalong, who we first met back at Pt Stephens, picked us up for a day touring the GC hinterland with his wife Sue. First they took us to a farmers market at Nerang where we stocked up on beautiful local produce and, much to Michael's delight, experienced green olives stuffed with cheese, crumbed and deep fried - ON A STICK! Genius.

After that they drove us up into the hills above Mudgeeraba at a place called Mt Nimmel. Ron and Sue bought their property in the 1970's and have split their time between sailing the south pacific and raising their kids in this truly idyllic spot, 500 metres above sea level overlooking Burleigh Heads and the Gold Coast. It so was fantastic to see a different side of the region outside the craziness of the tanned bubble-men and meter-maids!

Over the next few days we're catching up with some other sailing friends before pushing on to BrisVegas, hopefully in time to find an anchorage and catch Riverfire over the weekend.

View from Bums Bay

A selection from the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin

 Ghost dogs...

Imogen and Michael

 

Views from the hotel at Southport

Scary, enormous, unfinished mansions on the Sovereign Islands near our current anchorage